Jose Mourinho blamed for Chelsea’s loss of two stars – ‘it was a personality clash’

Gareth Southgate jokes England’s strength gives him ‘headache’ picking team

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Former Chelsea coach Eddie Newton has lifted the lid on how Jose Mourinho drove Mohamed Salah and Kevin De Bruyne out of the club. The controversial Portuguese manager returned for a second spell in charge at Stamford Bridge in 2013, during which time he won the Premier League but also reportedly fell out with a number of players before being sacked in December 2015.

Salah and De Bruyne joined the Blues during this period, but both of them failed to make an impression in west London, and were sent out on loan spells before eventually being permanently sold.

The two are now considered among the best players in the Premier League as they ply their trades at Liverpool and Manchester City respectively, and Chelsea fans no doubt look back and regret the fact that they were not given a fair crack of the whip during their spell with the Blues.

Speaking in an interview with Goal, Newton explained what went wrong for the duo.

“For me, I think Salah and De Bruyne wasn’t about talent,” he said. “It was a personality clash [with Jose Mourinho]. I just didn’t think it was working at the time.

“I think they were more than good enough, but it was the manager who didn’t see eye-to-eye with them, so it wasn’t going to work.”

Romelu Lukaku was another player who Chelsea let go, although they have now gone on to re-sign the Belgian forward.

And interestingly, Newton believes his case was different, insisting he was simply not good enough at the time to make it with Chelsea.

“For Lukaku, he wasn’t ready at the time, and I don’t care what anyone says,” he added.

“He just wasn’t ready to be the main No.9 up front and carry that platform like Didier [Drogba]. He was always going to be compared to Didier and it wasn’t fair to him at that time.

“It was different situations for different players.

“He is now back at Chelsea, more mature and a senior player who can play with his back to goal and score. He is now ready to complete that journey and fair play to him. A lot of hard work went into where he is now.”

Lukaku scored three goals in his first two games back with the Blues after his big-money move from Inter Milan in the summer.

But since then he has failed to hit the back of the net, and will be desperately hoping that changes soon.

He is an injury doubt for this weekend’s game against Brentford, however, after suffering muscle fatigue while away on international duty with Belgium.

Chelsea currently sit top of the Premier League, but are only a point ahead of title rivals Liverpool.

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